Pronunciation: (ēt), [key]
—v., ate (āt; esp. Brit. et) or (Archaic) eat (et, ēt); eat•en or (Archaic) eat (et, ēt); eat•ing;
1. to take into the mouth and swallow for nourishment; chew and swallow (food).
2. to consume by or as if by devouring gradually; wear away; corrode: The patient was eaten by disease and pain.
3. to make (a hole, passage, etc.), as by gnawing or corrosion.
4. to ravage or devastate: a forest eaten by fire.
5. to absorb wastefully; consume (often fol. by up): Unexpected expenses have been eating up their savings.
6. Slang (vulgar). to perform cunnilingus or fellatio on.
1. to consume food; take a meal: We'll eat at six o'clock.
2. to make a way, as by gnawing or corrosion: Acid ate through the linoleum.
3. be eating someone, Informal.to worry, annoy, or bother: Something seems to be eating him—he's been wearing a frown all day.
4. eat away or into, to destroy gradually, as by erosion: For eons, the pounding waves ate away at the shoreline.
5. eat crow. See crow 1 (def. 7).
6. eat high off the hog. See hog (def. 11).
7. eat humble pie. See humble pie (def. 3).
8. eat in, to eat or dine at home.
9. eat one's heart out. See heart (def. 23).
10. eat one's terms. See term (def. 16).
11. eat one's words. See word (def. 14).
12. eat out, to have a meal at a restaurant rather than at home.
13. eat out of one's hand. See hand (def. 36).
14. eat someone out of house and home, to eat so much as to strain someone's resources of food or money: A group of hungry teenagers can eat you out of house and home.
15. eat the wind out of, Naut.to blanket (a sailing vessel sailing close-hauled) by sailing close on the weather side of.
16. eat up,
a. to consume wholly.
b. to show enthusiasm for; take pleasure in: The audience ate up everything he said.
c. to believe without question.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.